My name is Kris and I'm new here, but I just had a question. Basically just got a new baby iguana yesterday for the first time. I had two older iguanas previous to this, when I was younger but had to give them up due to unforeseen circumstances. Point is I've never had one that was this young (a few weeks old or so, maybe 2 months?).

What I'm a bit confused by is he seems to like me already? I was expecting to have to really work to earn his trust but just over 24 hours after having him he seems to have stopped freaking out when my hand enters his space, and he will now climb onto my hand and relax there while I pet his chin or his sides. He frequently does the closing the eye that's facing me, etc. And will even close both if I pet him.

He even allows me to feed him by hand. If I offer him greens he perches up and opens his mouth for me to place greens in and will close his mouth/eyes if he's not hungry anymore. Basically I just wanted to know, is this sort of rapid acclimation to people normal, or did I just somehow get lucky?

"rapid acclimation to people normal, or did I just somehow get lucky?"

It's not normal, but he is showing signs of stress you don't recognize. OTOH, you might be lucky. It's hard to tell. Over the next 12 months his personality will change, but not necessarily in a bad way. You will have to adapt to his changing persona.

For any iguana, closing one eye is a way to limit his experience with you. Head petting makes many iguanas close both eyes to reduce their experience.

When his sense of territory develops, he is likely to avoid your hand in his space by running, biting, and tail whipping. The way to deal with that is to not let him dictate to you how you should behave. Rather, reach in and grab him as quickly as possible. Then sit with him quietly.

Hand feeding often leads to the problem of him not getting enough nutrition. Iguanas are designed to eat large volumes of low nutrient foods. There have been lots of examples here of iguanas of all ages who couldn't break the hand-feeding habit. They can eat a lot more when they feed off of a pile of dripping-wet food on a plate. You should stop hand feeding his staple foods, and find treats that he really loves. Then feed small bits of treats whenever you two interact so he can associate you with something good. Try bits of banana, apple, pizza crust, grape, and more. Keep it up until he shows interest in a specific treat. For now,, stick the treat on a toothpick and hold it next to his nose, and gently wipe the treat across his snout (if he doesn't show he hates it) so when he tongue flicks, he can taste it. He needs time to catch on to the situation.

I hope he is one of the lucky iguanas who never get resistive and tough, needing systematic taming. stay in touch, OK? :-)